The Dancing Project

presents

Down Low

STAGED READINGS for DOWN LOW
a new play by John Patrick Bray and Keith Dorwick

September 21 and 22, 8 pm; September 23, 3 pm
Fletcher Auditorium, 134 Fletcher Hall
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette Campus
Admission: FREE

The Dancing Project announces a set of staged readings of Down Low, a new play about HIV/AIDS in the Deep South. Down Low is now being presented at Fletcher Auditorium on the UL Lafayette campus September 21 and 22, 8 pm; and September 23, 3 pm.  Following the staged readings, audience members are invited to comment on the show as it continues to be rewritten by its authors.

In order to provide a means of hearing the voices of those affected by HIV/AIDS in the Deep South, the project co-directors gathered some of the true stories, fears and wishes of those affected by HIV here in Lafayette Parish via a website and from personal conversations. As an amalgam of real life stories from both gay and straight people and from a variety of ages and races, the theatrical version of Dancing with the Virus (an early version of Down Low) in its October 2006 world premiere at Cité des Arts explored the stresses and the possibilities of living with HIV in a region in which many people think of HIV as both highly contagious and absolutely absent. As they worked with the material, the authors realized it had to focus on the African-American experience: they have rewritten it and focused the show on the “down low,” the need for men here in the Deep South to hide their sexualities, a factor in the high rates of HIV here in Lafayette Parish and all over the Deep South. Down Low is supported by a Decentralized Arts Grant from the Acadiana Arts Council with funds provided by the Louisiana Division of the Arts, as well as by a grant from AcadianaCARES.

For more information, email Keith Dorwick at dancing@louisiana.edu or call him at (337) 482-6915. No reservations are necessary.

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